Federal Court Says Tenant Must Sue For Damages In State Court:  Lesson: The tenant claims her landlord and housing authority negligently inspected her house. If true, they may be liable for damages, assuming the tenant did not wait too long to sue for the negligent inspections. Landlords, especially in situati...  Read More  09/03/2010 10:01 AM

Landlord's Eviction Case Is Dismissed Over Defective Notice:  Lesson: This case illustrates how important it is for landlords to make sure any notice they give to a tenant is correct and contains sufficient facts for a court to render judgment. This Notice to Quit only said one month's rent was in dispute and ...  Read More  09/03/2010 09:50 AM

Landlord's Failure To Inspect Property May Lead To Liability:  Lesson: The landlord admitted she did not inspect the property for at least 10 years and as a result she may be liable for a guest's injury because she did not have a written lease shifting the burden of making repairs to her tenant. Landlords must ...  Read More  09/03/2010 09:46 AM

Tenant's Death Did Not Terminate Lease for Section 8 Purposes:  Lesson: The landlord and housing authority should not have ignored the requests for status determination following the death of the tenant because the lease did not automatically terminate. As the court points out here, the lease would have terminat...  Read More  08/27/2010 11:19 AM

Landlord May Evict One Tenant And Allow Other Tenants To Stay:  Lesson: Never lease to anyone without using a written lease agreement – even family members. The court told the landlord his family members were tenants at will even without a lease in place and he had to follow the rules to evict them. New York. ...  Read More  08/27/2010 11:16 AM

Tenant's Guarantor Not Liable For New Debt Says Appellate Court:  Lesson: The landlord had the right idea by requiring the tenant to find new guarantors but the original guarantor could not be held liable because the second lease extension changed the guarantor's risk obligations. If you use a guaranty, make sure ...  Read More  08/27/2010 11:13 AM

Landlord Cannot Be Held Liable For Fall Caused By Defective Step:  Lesson: The landlord could not be held liable here because he did not have a duty to correct the hazardous step. There was no evidence the landlord even knew the step was hazardous but the evidence indicated it had been "broken" for at least two ye...  Read More  08/20/2010 4:38 PM

Trial Court's Decision To Vacate Eviction Order Was Proper:  Lesson: The landlord should have included all of its reasons for seeking to evict the tenant instead of just the fact she missed two payments. The landlord did not claim she was had a history of not making her payments which may have resulted in a d...  Read More  08/20/2010 4:33 PM

Landlord Ordered Not To Interfere With Tenant's Subsidy Payments:  Lesson: The landlord should have accepted the rent from the agency and allowed the tenant to stay. Landlords must comply with all federal regulations if they choose to accept federal funds and Section 8 tenants. New York. An appellate court vacate...  Read More  08/20/2010 4:27 PM

Court Enforces Settlement Agreement And Evicts Tenant:  Lesson: The court allowed the landlord to evict the tenant because she breached their settlement agreement and the landlord followed the terms of the agreement to evict her. Courts will enforce settlement agreements as long as they are fair and this...  Read More  08/20/2010 4:23 PM